2010 MacBook Refresh Q1 and Q3 | Light Peak?

January 14, 2010

Earlier today, AppleInsider posted an image from an internal Intel email that was sent to all employees as part of their internal rewards structure. The image stated that they had a chance to win a new MacBook Pro “with the accelerated response of an Intel Core i5 processor.” This leads us all to believe that there will be an announcement of a new MacBook Pro refresh, most likely at the January 27th press conference at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. My guess is that this MacBook update is going to be rather small, the biggest news of which will be the processor upgrade. There have been a lot of legal issues between Nvidia, Intel, and possibly Apple that are nixing my hopes and dreams for any more than just a processor speed increase . More on that topic at AppleInsider.

NOTE: It has just been mentioned that this contest email was a mistake, that they had gotten the processor right, but not the computer… Hmm… likely story? We’ll find out on the 27th!

Since I already have a Unibody MacBook from late 2008, I think I’m going to hold off on buying another one until later this year, when a larger refresh would be likely to occur.

I think there’s going to be another announcement in Q3 that’s going to be what i’m looking for, with a new GPU, another upgrade of the processor (which will still be core i5, but faster), and will include (fingers crossed) Light Peak, a new blazing fast standard for transferring data. This will likely be the competing technology for USB 3.0 aka SuperSpeed.

There’s a good reason to believe that Light Peak will be part of the future MacBook Pro lineup. From an Engadget article written in September of 2009:

Engadget has learned — thanks to an extremely reliable source — that not only is Apple complicit in the development of Light Peak, but the company actually brought the concept to Intel and asked them to create it. More to the point, the new standard will play a hugely important role in upcoming products from Cupertino.

If it was Apple’s idea it makes even more sense that they would add this to their products. As for the date, the same article states that they have heard it’s set for a release in Fall 2010 as part of the typical back to school sales.

Adoption of the standard is the only thing that I would be worried about, but if Apple is standing behind this new standard in their products, specifically their laptop offerings, then I’m not too worried. I think Apple has a strong weight in setting new industry standards, especially due to the fact that Apple customers have such intense loyalty that they’ll trust whatever Apple comes out with and typically buy all of Apple’s latest and greatest gear.